research into Ethereal Goth and Dreampop (and other stuff for fans of early 4AD and Projekt)

Laura Sheeran is another newer act that is very much down this particular alley:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnBLUh6eo7U

Only just catching up with the last Esben & the Witch album. First one left me cold, but this next one is pretty good. Kind of annoyed with myself for having missed it tbh, they're a local band too.

also gonna leave this tag here: http://ectoguide.org/genre/ethereal

Also: Stare, Dark Sanctuary, Aenima, Human Drama, Arcanta, Autumn, Deleyaman, Siddal, Ostia.

xpost -- Ha! I was just noting Arcanta below, actually. So to edit/add on the post as I typed it.

There's a fell swoop of bands up there a few posts back. Of the ones I've heard:

Eden -- VERY DCD. To the point some called them the Australian tribute band to DCD. But enjoyable.

Autumn's Grey Solace -- another post-Cocteaus duo but a nice clutch of albums. Mood music.

Chandeen -- I know I have AN album of theirs around...maybe I reviewed it for the AMG?

Basque -- have the one album, I think; interesting but I'll need to revisit it.

Love Is Colder Than Death -- have an album, no immediate impression.

Weep -- think I've reviewed their most recent. One of the guys who does voices for Venture Bros or something?

Mirabilis -- VAGUE memory of hearing something.

Arcana -- always got them and Arcanta confused early on. Both good but I am more of an Arcanta fan; friendly fellow -- sent me his final album under the name a couple of years back.

Melodyguild -- Suzanne from LSD's band after that, though they only had the one EP I think?

Loreena McKennitt -- more in her own universe, I thought? Somewhere between Jane Siberry, Enya and DCD. HUGE among a lot of people I remember being Mercedes Lackey fans.

Siddal -- DC Cocteausy stuff, nice enough.

Human Drama -- their own thing! Goth trappings, downbeat rock and roll inspirations, early hyperdrama turned into elegant performances, some great unexpected covers, continuing into the follow-on band (can't remember the name right now) and Johnny Indovina's solo career. Great guy, actually. Robert Smith asked him to open up for the Cure in Mexico City earlier this year! Always found it interesting what sticks with Mr. Smith over the years.

Have we mentioned the Hypnos label yet? Or AE Records, who released Lucid? Both curious/cryptic labels that always seemed to skate under the radar; odd in Hypnos's case because they released a slew of things. As for acts, there's always Unto Ashes as well -- prolific as well, great covers/reworkings. Of course if we go that route then full on into acid folk via Tim Renner and Stone Breath...

i always want to love a lot of this stuff but i never end up loving it like i love the original artists that stuff like this is built on. most of the time the reason for this is lack of great songs. or they've got the spirit but lose the feeling. lycia are pretty great though. and also the trees don't really remind me of any of this music though i'm sure if anyone listens to them it would be goths. this is more for goth diehards, i guess. people who stay current with industrial or EBM. people like ned. i find that everything i love about early 80's/4AD/first wave goth/ambient is more than ably covered by metal sub-genres. goth ambient shoegazer metal is everywhere and it just feels stronger to me then anything i've heard by someone like moon seven times or other like-minded groups. i've tried too. listened. bought CDs. in theory i am all for sad boy and girl ambient/gaze. would love to hear something GREAT. whereas my reaction is usually to quote ned above: "nice enough".

i LOVE the cindytalk stuff that has come out in recent years. that to me is evolution and truly great ambient art.

and this is the part where i tell people to listen to Troller:

http://troller.bandcamp.com/album/troller

this thread might have some pointers:

Women in drone and psych

Oh yeah, don't forget the whole Ventricle Records axis - Mauve Sideshow, Mistress Of Strands, Torn Curtain, Angel Provocateur, etc...
― sleeve (sleeve), Wednesday, March 8, 2006 10:40 PM

It is true that a lot of these bands are somewhere between Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance with not much to call their own and it is dispiriting to know that my journeys will mostly be into derivative stuff way more than original good stuff. But not many other people are going to do the work and I am very interested in finding good stuff.
I love shoegazing but there is legions of mediocre stuff and I just don't have it in me (or the time!) to dig heavily as others might. It is also a bit depressing that some genre that was exciting at the start tends to get boring at the further reaches.

Also, I think a lot of bands sound derivative first time you hear them but years later you wonder why you thought that. I think a lot of genres sound samey when you first start exploring. I like Black Metal but even a lot of the b-list bands sound too samey to me.
If any metal bands seem to fit well enough in here, go for it. Scott, do you mean Alcest and stuff like that. I've heard Angelic Process are quite metally.

I really do think Lycia, Trance To The Sun, Rise And Fall Of A Decade, In The Nursery are great bands, visionaries and just as good and better than some of the originators. I also think Con Dolore/Polar, Alison's Halo, Lovesliescrushing and Sianspheric are close to the very top shoegazing, personally I'd put these guys ahead of Lush, Ride and Pale Saints (who I also love).

Any other Rise And Fall Of A Decade fans? I urge you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWl2Ckj1a98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX7Ibk5EkSU

Maybe more ideas here [http://everynoise.com/engenremap-darkwave.html] and here [http://everynoise.com/engenremap-etherealwave.html].

Does Virginia Astley belong here?

Love Breathless, have all their albums.

i LOVE the cindytalk stuff that has come out in recent years. that to me is evolution and truly great ambient art.

Very, very true. A powerful act still, finding new ways.

That Every Noise At Once site is pretty cool, but listening to samples has made me less optimistic about finding good stuff. Rosewater Elizabeth sounds pretty good, but they are another that has been on my shopping list a while.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thevyllies

I saw a couple of Vyllies music videos roughly two years ago and was highly impressed, but their music was bafflingly hard to find for a band who weren't totally obscure. Turns out their complete recordings got put out on 2cd collection very recently. Hooray, I bought it.

A trio of women, not totally derivative, for a few years in the 80s.

the pieter nooten albums beyond sleeps with the fishes are quite good! he's got about half a dozen total, I think?

Thank you thread for namechecking the Vyllies and Cindytalk... LOVING these later Cindytalk albums right now.

"i always want to love a lot of this stuff but i never end up loving it like i love the original artists that stuff like this is built on."

I have exactly the same problem, especially with "shoegaze"

I'm beating a dead horse here a bit but while I think it is generally true that the original stuff is better (as is the case for most genres of anything), I think some of the newer bands I mentioned can be equally as powerful. I hope I didn't give the impression that I fully endorse all those bands I listed above, but I did think all of them were interesting enough to mention if only for a handful of songs.

Some fans say "I love this style so much that I even enjoy the mediocre bands" and some say "I love this style so much that I cant stand to hear it done less than brilliant"; I'm somewhere between those two spots.
I recall when I was just getting into shoegazing and several other genres, the idea of hearing increasingly less potent versions of something I loved was pretty scary. I always like to think back to when I started each genre and think of how sky high my expectations were for the other bands. I thought maybe I should just have stopped buying more and just dreamed of what I would liked to have heard. But even though you get lots of disappointment from exploring, you also get surprises which enrich your life.
Another aspect is that I can come into a genre with expectations I so badly want to see fulfilled, but I have to respect that most bands probably had totally different ambitions and although I love genre labels, you really have to judge a band as an individual thing apart from what you want from a genre.

I think Sianspheric and Lovesliescrushing gave me something I wanted that some of the earlier bands didn't do for me (again, they have no obligation to guess what people might want). I love their expansive lush haziness... actually it's difficult to describe these bands in a way really differentiates between other bands. Because you can write a million reviews for shoegazing, ambient and extreme metal bands and easily make them all sound the same. But when I hear those first 2 Sianspheric albums, it is crystal clear why this works for me and why I think it is way better than most other bands attempts at a similar thing.
Loads of reviews of these bands get compared to all the usual suspects and while I don't want to hear that "this band sounds like Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, but obviously not as good", I do have a craving for bands with similar goals because all these bands make you see areas you'd like to be explored a bit more.

In some ways I feel I'm kind of selling some of these bands short by lumping them in together. I think HTRK, Aether and The Vyllies do something substantially different from a lot of these bands (not to sell the other bands short that are closer to the originals) but I put them here because I feel they have enough in common and I'd like an excuse to talk about them.

I feel like a bit of a goth traitor/blasphemer here because while I do consider myself a fan of Siouxsie And The Banshees and adore individual songs, I've always been lukewarm about their albums as wholes. Having said that, I have only 5 of their albums: Scream, Juju, Kiss In The Dreamhouse, Hyaena, Peepshow. Peepshow is my favourite.
Some might call them the key band, Robert Smith has often gave me the impression that they sort of wakened him up and made him see possibilities and most of the other bands were fans of them.

you need Kaleidoscope!

i love the albums. i love the singles. lots of love. this is the stuff i really got excited by this year:

do you guys like GRAVE BABIES? the nu-jesus&marychain goth underground champs

Siouxie has never really grabbed, although you can see the influence on Garlands, which I love. I can only dream of how good that album would have sounded with a mature Raymonde, rather than Will Heggie, who seems to be doing a permanent one man Primary impersonation.

make that 'grabbed me'

I'll need to get some Grave Babies samples.

When we had that massive Cocteau Twins poll recently I was surprised at the range of contrasting opinions. I adore Will Heggie's contribution so much that I wish he did another 2 albums with them. What he did with Lowlife is very different. Did that Lowlife documentary ever get off the ground?
I've not good at spotting instruments so I've never been able to spot what Raymonde did because he is very subtle and his work blends in way more, so I cant always hear him distinctly; I just assume he is great because he is on so many good records.

As an example of an original influence on this style I think Echo And The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain is extremely underwhelming. I think it has 2 or 3 great songs but the rest is pretty forgettable.

Heaven Up Here would be a better reference point. I like hearing it a lot these days. Sounds great.

Yeah that one is my favorite of the original four in the end.

Just my reviews for RateYourMusic and Amazon, repeats some of the info I gushed at the top of the thread...

TRANCE TO THE SUN – GHOST FOREST

Ashkelon Sain was previously in This Ascension and Blade Fetish for a brief time but Trance To The Sun has him as the dominant force but not quite solo since the female singers were a defining aspect of their sound.

This first album is different enough to set them apart from other ethereal goth bands but before they became truly distinct. It is dark, meanders mysteriously and evocatively with almost ghostly vocals but doesn’t have the exotic colour and “oomph” of the later albums.
I wish I could hear the words better because I catch interesting things here and there; maybe the remastered version is clearer. I love the song title “Lend Me Your Most Vile”.

“August Rain” had previously appeared as a This Ascension song and Trance To The Sun would return to it later again.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – BLOOM FLOWERS BLOOM!

The characteristic sounds of the band come in here a bit more and better quality tracks in general. Probably succeeds more as an atmospheric journey too.
“Gira Sola” is dedicated to someone in the sleeve notes, it sounds like it was for someone who passed away and it is one of the most beautiful things in any of their albums, easily the best thing on this album.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – VENOMOUS EVE

I think this is when they started being a properly brilliant band. There aren’t many bands where I struggle to choose an essential “if you only get one, get this” record, or picking an ideal introduction album. A lot of my favourite bands maybe have two contenders at most, with exceptions like Swans, REM or Beach Boys there might be as many as 5 I could choose. I feel that way about this band. Venomous Eve, Delirious, Azalean Sea, Urchin Tear Soda and Atrocious Virgin all seem like contenders for a best album of theirs.

The previous two had this feeling of wandering around in dark vague landscapes with hypnotic distant echoes drawing you around. This one really nails their early sound but adds lots of odd touches. A lot more is done with the vocals, quite soft but also banshee like (I don’t mean Siouxsie), and Sain’s fantastic voluptuous bass sound really comes into its own.

The sounds make me think of large tall subterranean dark caverns, while slightly less vague than previous and with more detailed visions, is still filled with suggestive, ominous mystery. The ending that gets louder and really strange is a brilliant finisher.
There might be quite a number of ethereal atmospheric goth albums but I don’t think there is much else quite like this. I don’t think this is territory already explored by earlier similar bands; this underworld is a different place they are luring you to (although I imagine other people imagine totally different places not underground).

Vocalist Zoe Alexandra Wakefield left after this album (there were still tracks of her that appeared on later compilations) and from most interviews I’ve seen with the band members, it seems nobody knows where she went.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – DELIRIOUS

This is probably the their album that excites me most when I think about it in retrospect and the one I have the most urge to replay; that might be because it was the first album I got by the band but I’m not sure.
I’ve seen it listed as an EP but I’m sure it is a full length album and I wouldn’t like people to think it was any less important than the rest. It is very different from anything else they did, a lot brighter and more colourful than the previous albums. I might be influenced by the cover art but I tend to think of oceans of glaring purple/pink lava in several songs.
Dawn Wagner is the vocalist on this one, this is the only album she was on; apparently she left because it was felt she cared about her own solo stuff much more than being in this band. I think she is really fantastic on this, so I’m eager to hear her Scarlet Slipping albums.

When I first got this, I never liked the idea of dancey goth music but I learned from this that it could be energetic and fun but still keep the atmosphere and otherworldly qualities in full force.
It taken me a while to really appreciate the first track because it feels like a slow intro before the album really kicks in, but I love the little story it tells, about this intimate obsessive couple talking about the past “do you remember when we tried to make it rain?”.
There is a really brilliant sequence of really exciting tracks, perhaps 3 or more in a row; working to an extent that I don’t hear often, it keeps a great momentum.

I really really love this album.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – AZALEAN SEA

This is a compilation of salvaged highlights from as many as four aborted albums. It is structured kind of oddly that it starts from most recent material and ending with their older songs. I’d say it was just as important as any of their albums.

Ingrid Blue became the vocalist here and I think she really established herself really well after a few vocalists came and went (including Gordon Sharp from Cindytalk but as far as I know, he didn’t record any songs with them). The songs are mostly rockier than usual, several have this really hard, satisfying, confident strutting quality.

Dara Rosenwasser (Faith and Disease) sings on a track which is strange and has this low almost brooding quality about the sounds but “brooding” really isn’t the emotional quality of the song overall; at first it seemed slapdash to me but there is something pleasingly weird about it.
Ashkelon Sain sings some of the songs himself and although he isn’t as good as the other singers, there are one or two where he manages some interesting things.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – URCHIN TEAR SODA

Much bigger album than the previous albums, more variety and more ambitious. I’m usually not one to care about lyrics that much for most bands, but the combination of sounds and lyrics creates vivid little scenes which I find really fascinating.
I think of Clark Ashton Smith’s exotic colourful lost planets but featuring strange gothy punks with mental issues inhabiting those worlds. The cover art is much better than the other albums and it gives you a fairly good clue to how it sounds.

The version of Pink Floyd’s “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” is really great. The end tracks have some very lengthy very psychedelic journeys with lots of different phases. I think this one takes you more different places than the other albums.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – ATROCIOUS VIRGIN

I don’t know if when they recorded this if it was meant as a final album, but it sounds that way to me. Some of the tracks have what I interpret as big celebratory feel; even something like “Homewrecker” with fairly miserable lyrics sounds like it has a sense of wonder about it. A lot of it feels like air travel across weird skies. The word “cunt” makes several appearances.

There is a spoken word piece by someone not from the band, it can be difficult to hear a lot of it but I think it is in the sleeve cards, which have quite a number of interesting paintings by Ingrid Blue; but for some reason this and the previous album are much harder to find on cd than the earlier ones, so I don’t know if people will get the images and lyrics with the mp3 version.

After this Ashkelon Sain formed Submarine Fleet and later collaborated with Soriah; I’m fairly sure Ingrid Blue was in an eccentric punky classical band called Bela Lugosi.
Trance To The Sun got together for some later gigs and I think they are working on a new album now.

SUBMARINE FLEET – IN A CASE OF FIRE

Ashkelon Sain got back with Mark (Marc?) Linder, quite some time after Blade Fetish (though he was in some Trance To The Sun stuff). This sounds far more collaborative for Sain than his previous band; which might be why I’m not quite as into it as Trance To The Sun; but it is good stuff all the same.

SUBMARINE FLEET – A VERY STRANGE SIGHT IN THE DISTANCE

Quite a bit more adventurous than the previous EP. Some really lovely colourful ethereal tracks on this and I do recommend it but I’m glad Sain went onto different things after this. I think he used the name Submarine Fleet for solo improvised shows. I haven’t heard his Soriah collaborations yet but I’m very much looking forward to that.

Finished listening to the second Esben And The Witch album. It is much better than the first, but I think "When That Head Splits" is disproportionately better than everything else, a really amazing track.

Finished listening to the second Esben And The Witch album. It is much better than the first

Yes, definitely! Took me ages to get round to listening to it cos the first one was so boring but I have become unreasonably obsessed with the second since I heard it. Very post-4AD, kinda reminds me of early Lush, Piano Magic circa Low Birth Weight, even maybe early period Disco Inferno. Love 'When That Head Splits', but I love the opening song too and this one is also lovely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w61LU6AvvPo

I've been meaning to check out Disco Inferno forever.

the stuff compiled on In Debt is the most relevant to this thread, but it's the sampled-based music that came afterwards that they're acclaimed for

Also been listening to that complete Vyllies collection. Starts off very punky and then more elegant synth later on, several horror themed tracks, pleasantly sinister. Some of it more poppy.

Also the Rosewater Elizabeth album Le Petit Mort. The first dreampop album I've ever seen that warns you about the frequencies possibly damaging your sound system. Unusually for an obscure ethereal goth band, the production sounds really expensive and it has a nice depth to it.

not be all plug-y but some of you may like this band i play bass in
https://soundcloud.com/stealthistrack/shatter-mp3

pretty! dunno if it's just the power of suggestion just cos yr in the band tyler, but the chorus sounds a bit neil youngish, like only love can break your heart or something, that kind of lilting voice hanging over things

ha, well, i didn't have anything to do with the writing, but I'll take it as a compliment!

I've been meaning to check out Disco Inferno forever.

Rightly so.

but of course! it's an interesting blend of styles xp

I've been thinking of starting a thread listing all the bands I've wanted to hear for years (some as long ago as a decade) but I'm not sure if there is a point other than getting to shout at each other "drop everything and listen to them now!"

Probably isnt a good idea, I could probably list 200 bands that I've wanted to hear for years. Gordon Lightfoot is probably the one longest ago that I still havent got around to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79lLJsk8CqU

good one - who are these guys?

Yeah great track.

Pointers to some artists conspicuous in their absence above:

80s: Hetch Hetchy, Hugo Largo
90s: Anymore, Breath of Life, The Changelings, Collection d'Arnell-Andrea (I cheated, here), Elysium, Orange, Perfume Tree, Scala, Skinner Box
00s: Aisth, Au Revoir Borealis, Halou, Rhea's Obsession, School of Seven Bells (sadly), Sol Seppy, Violet Indiana
Current: A Sunny Day in Glasgow, 2:54, Exitmusic, Gazelle Twin, Zambri

xp: White Poppy is Crystal Dorval from Canada, she's got a bunch of stuff on bandcamp and the album that song's from is out on Not Not Fun (CD and LP). Apparently she's touring Europe in March. Lucky Euros.

Velour 100?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKSidApDmTc

Majesty Crush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKZKBW752k4

Thanks to everyone (especially Sanpaku) for the contributions. Quite a few of them are already on my shopping lists but Hetchy Hetchy, Anymore, Breath Of Life, Skinner Box, Zambri and White Poppy are all new to me, thanks.

Does Hetchy Hetchy really have Michael Stipe's sister? Surely they would have been more famous for that alone?

=========================
Rosewater Elizabeth's Le Petit Mort is far more unusual than it appeared to me at first. It has lots of nice recurring moments and I love the way the songs seem to emerge out a deep space; some really gorgeous sparkly moments in there. It does have one or two typical goth moments but it's actually quite avant-garde. I know people might say this about a lot of ethereal music but you can really sink into this album and lose track of time.
Looking forward to the earlier album, hope I can get it on cd but it is on mp3.

The Vyllies collection was really good. The sinister horror tracks are easily the best thing on it. Some of it is actually quite spooky.
It is all remastered but I've never heard the originals (they are very rare it seems). I know next to nothing about the techie side of music so I'm not sure if I find the production lacking or if the instruments aren't good enough but I feel like the song material had the potential for more and deserved better sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jymp9Jdy8T4

I was watching the latest new Trance To The Sun live video and I saw a band called Solemn Meant Walks down the sidebar. Pretty good stuff.

http://solemnmeantwalks.bandcamp.com/

Finished listening to STARE - Haunted.
Pleasingly murky/swampy with those virtuous heroine vocals you hear in goth and metal bands often(this band surely calls themselves Goths), a few tracks I really liked but otherwise passable/okay. It has a cover of a Glove song.

in other goth news, Dark Entries is reissuing Clan of Xymox's Peel Sessions EP on vinyl and digital in a few days:

https://xymox.bandcamp.com/album/peel-sessions

Contains an amazing version of Seventh Time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN-__3hnUys

I guess having a new singer prompted a different band name?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouq-r8hXr-E
https://trancetothemoon.bandcamp.com/releases

This thread is a great resource!

Cocteau heads have to hunt down Heavenly Bodies with Carolyn Seaman from This Mortal Coil...pretty essential for completists, plus it ROCKS.

Someone stole my copy years ago, so I swiped it back via soulseek.

I prefer the folk / rhythmic aspect of this music and don't much care for classical influences and am looking for suggestions on Irish / Scottish folk that uses electronics or has a more ethereal sound. Also looking for ethereal bands who use funky folk rhythms like bel canto does.

But I'm gonna queue some of this today because I have a headache.

CaroLINE Seaman, I mean. The one who sings on the 2nd TMC album.

Ha, I think I have that around...

Yeah the heavenly bodies album is worth seeking out

And I'll say another time that Lisa Hammer's Dakini is amazing

Looks like it's streaming on Apple Music at least

https://music.apple.com/us/album/celestial/1571240546

Are those sound effects, or is this Apple Music version a somewhat noisy vinyl rip (listening to the opening of "An Obsession" at the moment)?

Just want to say how much this thread has helped. Really enjoying Trance to the Sun right now...love the heavy murk guitars...reminds me of when I first head-banged to Garlands or Head Over Heels all those years ago.

They're amazing, the run of releases from Venomous Eve to Atrocious Virgin is incredible. I often think Delirious might be my favorite because they way it escalates is brilliant.

I still haven't given their last album the proper listens.

Breathless have a new album in july. I still only have Chasing Promises

There's lots to check out!

Been reading Facing The Other Way and I'm very pleased that Nooten and Brook's Sleeps With Fishes gets its due. Looking at the RYM reviews I wonder how many people discovered it through the book. A real shame Nooten and Brook didn't keep it going but I still have a bunch of Nooten era Xymox and all his solo albums to get. And of course there's so much Brook.

I wish 4AD had been better with reissues in the last 20 years, surely there's enough incentive to reissue more of its B and C-list bands?

Well, last 20 years as you said, ie the collapse of the industry and people trying to feel their way forward. The incentives are low.

At least everything I've looked for is available on digital (though I get CDs every time I can) but I wish other labels who still reissue all kinds of obscurities could get a hold of the rights or 4AD do those cheapie box sets (5 Classic/Original Albums).

There's been compilations of Lush, Colourbox, Rema-Rema and In Camera and some of them were limited editions. 4AD kept hold of everything, so I guess it's very unlikely the rights are going to shift companies.

Fairly sure more Lush reissues could have been successful

the pale saints reissue was well regarded, but they didn't repeat it with In Ribbons (30th anniversary was in march)

I'd be particularly grateful for reissues of Pale Saints, Xymox, Xmal Deutschland, Dif Juz and Wolfgang Press

nothing to add, just a thanks to RAG. dif juz mention has me revisiting for the first time in about 2 decades. i only ever heard extractions, so now that soundpool is on streaming i'm even hearing stuff for the first time ever. great way to spend a saturday afternoon.

I'm surprised I haven't talked about Scarlet Slipping's Fire In The Mist yet, it was a favorite at the start of covid. Dawn Wagner was great in Trance To The Sun (she was only on Delirious) and Scarlet Slipping was her own thing. Of course the common complaint in this thread is that the music often doesn't have a unique enough identity and I don't think that's a problem with Scarlet Slipping. Some tracks make me think of dark humid jungles and like Delirious, it's kind of dancey. I strongly recommend this album, she seems to have flown completely under the radar and has 5 albums, only 2 are easy enough to find.

Just downloaded the next album Hound and sounds good so far.

Actually she done some other Trance To The Sun stuff but Delirious was the only full album.

the pale saints reissue was well regarded, but they didn't repeat it with In Ribbons (30th anniversary was in march)

I was just talking with my friend about this album last Thursday on our way to the Spoon show in Hollywood. I need to dig out that album again as it has been a minute. 30 years has flown by...

Scarlet Slipping's bio mentions a celtic influence, I don't really hear it

in ribbons is one of my favorite albums of the 90s, you really should dig it out, bee!

I do need to, whenever I'm in the mood for Pale Saints I seem to reach for The Comforts of Madness but next time I will play In Ribbons as you and my friend suggested.

I also went over my ticket stubs recently and saw that I did get to see them live in Los Angeles. Truthfully, I can't remember that show as I was going to shows left and right in the early 90s.

I saw them in LA in 1992 the night they opened for Ride; Slowdive opened the other night, went to both shows. Missed the PS headlining at the Roxy IIRC, and the openers were Red House Painters, who had just been signed. (Maybe I'm not sad I missed that after where Kozelek ended up.)

The 4AD Xymox albums got nice CD reissues in the 90s and the deluxe edition of Twist of Shadows from a few years ago is also very good... all you need really. Subsequent Pleasures and the Peel Sessions are also readily available digitally. Wouldn't mind a deluxe reissue of Phoenix, it had a handful of solid b-sides (Twisted, Dreamhouse, Down to Earth).

Just came across the footnote that Nooten, Brook and Heidi Berry were going to make something together but practical reasons prevented it, heartbreaking.

Been looking through so many 90s band discographies and its so daunting thinking about getting the bsides and loose ends if I feel compelled to, I had totally forgotten about the ridiculous trend of copious bullshit remixes.
I thought that bsides/rarities collections were mostly a thing of the past (I miss them) but Belly released one last year.

Although I'm a CDs guy I think getting bsides on digital will keep me saner and my collection prettier

belly, boo Radleys, lush all remind me of that period of British chart history when 3 formats were eligible for chart sales so they'd always release 2cd singles and a 7", all with different b sides. and for the first week, in order to maximize entry position, they be sold cheaply. so for every a-side you'd effectively get 4 or 5 b-sides.

It was a real pain in the ass

Been thinking of arranging my discs alphabetically someday because boxing them by genre is getting impractical, but I recently opened my very broadly defined goth box and I got an amazing waft of Projekt smell. Sam Rosenthal has said he chooses paper that smells nice and I got a heady dose of that.

There is a definite quality there!

BTW, the new remaster of Area's Radio Caroline is pay-what-you-want right now: https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/radio-caroline-2023-remaster

Theyre my era and style pref, yet I don’t recall them, and now I am enjoying them. The vibe of Transmitter is so spot on for me today.

I didn't know of them either, but I was a moderate fan of The Moon Seven Times which was Lynn Canfield and Henry Frayne's post-Area band.

in champaign urbana no one can hear u scream.

jk, know nothing of it. zines rekkid stores cassettes and wordamouth. they all tried i spose ha

boy are the keys settings hit or miss on this, to my (tin) ears tho